Wednesday January 18, 2006

The last Forgotten voices book - The Second world war

This is the last book in the series Forgotten Voices by Max Arthur. As usual it is a series of interviews from the sound archives of soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians. The book is written chronologically and each chapter is divided into events that happened in the Second World war in the various regions. The thing that struck me after finishing reading it was the nature of this war, a truly global one covering most parts of the world.

As with my reviews of the other books I will go over items that stood out for me. One last thing to say, after the British Expeditionary force was forced to return to the UK you got a real sense of rejection failure and depression. As soon as the allies were on the offensive you sense a very different fighting force. Prepared to deal with and handle really bad situations. I am not suggesting that these men were cowards beforehand in any way or gave up easily but I think the Montgomery and Churchill effects on them are easy to see.

An airman told a story about an attack on a Dutch airfield. It had been captured by the Germans. As they started the attack only one aircraft could be seen. The rest were wrecked. So the RAF attacked this one. It turned out the Dutch had recaptured the airfield and were going to use that plane to escape...

The stress of the battle of Britain can be seen by one airman who during an air battle pressed the button to fire his gun. Nothing happened. He got back to base and drew his pistol in front of the armourer "I'll shoot you if you ever do that again".

One of the WAAF girls was cycling home near Duxford (Cambridgeshire). In the distance was a red glow but it was dark and after sunset. She asked someone what it was and they said "That's London burning".

A picture in the book shows people sleeping in the underground stations. Some people had to try and sleep on the rails themselves.

We think modern warfare is clever but the Germans attacked London knowing the tide times. This meant there was a severe lack of water in the river to put the fires out.

In the desert soldiers reported that to save water, they washed themselves in petrol and shaved in the dregs of their morning cup of tea.

There are more memories of the sinking of the HMS Hood ship, just as traumatic as in the Navy book in this series.

The sinking of the Bizmark is also covered, only a hundred and fifteeen escaped the sinking of that ship.

Very few Russians and Germans are featured in this book who fought on that Eastern front. I imagine the lack of German's was due to the fact most of them were captured and taken to Russia and at the time of the tapes being recorded no Russians would have been prepared to be interviewed.

I learnt at least one thing. During the Pearl Harbour attack HMS ships were also attacked.

Some airmen visited the people they shot down. One group stopped this when the talked to a Italian airman. In civilian life he had been a violinist. After he was brought down he had lost one of his hands. He would never play again.

The well known effect on Barnes Wallace of the loss of men during the Dambusters attack is mentioned with vivid descriptions of the attacks. He was in tears after hearing of the number of losses.

The use of a corpse dressed up as a Major with false plans on him is mentioned. The body was found and the false plans misled the enemy.

The Italian invasion is covered in detail. Churchill called Italy the "soft underbelly of Europe". But the Germans helped their allies out and made the going hard.

An amazing story is told where an RAF Sergeant climbs out on the wing of his bomber to put a engine fire out. He ended having to leave the plane and crashed into the ground. He was awarded the VC.

Something else I learnt was the use of gliders on the eve of D-Day.

The D-Day landings are described in much detail and one soldier mentions that they were told "Don't worry if all the first wave of you are killed". " We shall simply pass over your bodies with more and more men". The soldier said "What a confident thought to go to bed on".

During the land campaign over Germany one soldier got friendly with a family on a farm. They had planned to give his unit their farm cat at Xmas instead of a turkey. He was glad to leave before Xmas...

The V1 bombs are mentioned and also the brave pilots who brought great numbers of these things down before they inflicted any damage.

Dresden and the resulting firestorm as a result of the attack is described by airmen and civilians. The fact so much of the building was made of wood contributed to the ferocity of the fire. A daughter describes finding her mother by the fact that she found her earings. That is all that was left of her.

The horror of the concentration camps is relived by soldiers who came across them as they swept over Germany. Some inmates are also interviewed.

Finally the two Atom bomb attacks on Japan are described by allied soldiers who were nearby. At last this war was over. A pity we still find reasons to have had more since 1945...